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Happy New Year!

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission approved the track’s request to become the second track in the state to offer the machines with “little fanfare,” The Associated Press reported.

Additionally, the commission approved Ellis Park’s proposal to reopen year-round for simulcasting starting Jan. 1 and — for the first time in several years — gave the Henderson track the exclusive right to offer live racing in Kentucky on July 4.

“It’s a very big day for Ellis Park and the Tri-state and Henderson and everybody,” owner Ron Geary said by telephone.

“I’m a pretty happy camper,” Geary said.

He has said that after remodeling the entire Sportsmen’s Bar and about one-third of the main building and installing the 252 machines, Instant Racing gaming should launch sometime during the first three months of next year.

The games, which first appeared and proved successful at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, resemble slot machines and enable gamblers to pick the winners in replays of more than 21,000 historic, but unidentified, races.

“They’re not the same as slots, but they are really fun,” Geary said.

The expanded gaming will boost purse money somewhat 2012 but significantly in 2013, he said.

“The first 12 months should generate enough extra purse money to give a 40 to 50 percent increase” compared to what Ellis has offered horsemen, he said.

“The more the purses, the more horses we attract,” Geary continued. “The more horses we attract, the better the handle” because the odds of any particular horse winning should increase, boosting the payoff for a winning ticket and encouraging betters to wager more money.

“I think it’s a win-win,” he said.

“Number one, we’ll end up hiring between 65 and 86 full-time year-round jobs,” with Instant Racing offered almost every day of the year and simulcasting to be active on every day that a Kentucky racetrack is running races, which Geary said could exclude Mondays and Tuesdays.

“Two, we estimate that we will generate $2 million of extra pari-mutuel taxes to the state, so it’s good for the state,” he continued.

“And most important for Ellis Park, it will allow us to increase our purse money pretty substantially,” Geary said.

“If it goes well, we can open up more (racing dates),” he said.

Further, he said that initial results at Kentucky Downs in Franklin — which on Sept. 1 became the first track in the state to offer Instant Racing — indicate that the expanded gaming also has boosted its simulcasting revenue.

“That’s what we hoped would happen,” Geary said.

The impact on purse money won’t be in full effect next year.

“If we open (Instant Racing) on March 1, we’ll have … only five months” of revenues before the 2012 live meet begins, Geary said. “We need 12 months of Instant Racing to get 40 to 50 percent” more purse money.

Purses next year “will be somewhat less than that,” he said.

“It will be substantial in 2013,” Geary said. “We’ll be competitive, in my opinion, with the Indiana racetracks” where full-scale casinos have boosted purse money enough to draw horses away from Ellis Park during recent summers.

The legality of Instant Racing is under question; The Family Foundation of Kentucky has a case before the Kentucky Court of Appeals arguing that it’s essentially a slot machine and therefore illegal in this state. But Geary is confident that the court will side with the racing industry.

Meanwhile, Ellis Park will offer the only live thoroughbred racing in Kentucky next Fourth of July.

Historically, Independence Day belonged to Ellis. But after Churchill Downs Inc. purchased the Henderson track in 1998, the company transferred that date to its namesake track in Louisville.

After Geary purchased Ellis Park, he struck a deal to share July 4 between the two tracks for five years. But Churchill didn’t find the overlapping date to be particularly successful and decided to wrap up its 2012 meet on Saturday night, June 30.

“Our opening day will be Wednesday, July 4,” Geary said.

“Before Churchill bought us, July 4 would be our biggest weekend,” he said.

There will be no live racing on Thursday, July 5. The following day, Ellis will resume racing every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, wrapping up on Labor Day as usual.

The 2012 live racing meet will cover 30 days, one fewer than last year.

Courtesy Evansville Courier and Press.

 Ellis Park has requested similar race dates for next summer, though track owner Ron Geary won’t reveal the numbers until approval is made by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

The Henderson County facility ran 31 dates in 2011, beginning on the July 4 weekend and wrapping up on Labor Day. For the third year, it stuck to a Friday through Sunday schedule. Included in Geary’s request, made on Thursday, were dates for simulcasting. The past two years, Ellis has closed in the fall before picking up again in April.

Geary has said that if Ellis installs Instant Racing machines, the simulcasting business would stay open year-round.

“We expect to get a decision from the racing commission by the middle of October,” he said. “In the meantime, they look at the proposals and come back to us with any questions.”

On Thursday, a judge denied a request for a temporary injunction pulling Instant Racing from Kentucky Downs in Franklin. Geary sees that as a positive step toward adding the slot-like machines at Ellis by next spring.

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